In the past few years personal branding has been discussed exhaustively throughout the Net. The difference between today and over ten years ago when it was first mentioned by Tom Peters, is the rise of social technologies that have made branding not only more personal, but within reach. From the corporate brand (BMW), to the product brand (BMW M3 Coupe) and down to the personal brand (car salesman), branding is a critical component to a customer’s purchasing decision. These days, customer complaints and opinions are online and viewable through a simple search, on either Google or through social networks. There is no hiding anymore and transparency and authenticity are the only means to survive and thrive in this new digital kingdom. We can also have just as much presence as most startups and mid-size companies and products.
Personal Branding 102: How to Communicate & Maintain Your Brand.

Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.

In my previous post, Personal Branding 101, we discussed the importance of branding in this web 2.0 world, as well as how to discover and create your brand. In Personal Branding 102 we’ll discuss how you’ll communicate your personal brand, using social media tools and proven marketing tactics, and then how to sustain your future growth by performing brand maintenance.

Communicating your brand This is the exciting and challenging part of the process. You’ve figured out what you want to do and have created content around it.
HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter. Dan Schawbel is the bestselling author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.

Follow him on Twitter @DanSchawbel. Today, Twitter has roughly 6 million users and is projected to grow to 18.1 million users by 2010. With all those people, the chances for networking are endless and connecting with new people can lead to career opportunities, so it is essential that your personal brand exists on the service. Last month we showed you a step-by-step process for building your personal brand on Facebook, and today we’re going to show you how to do the same thing on Twitter.
HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook. Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.

With over 200 million active users, Facebook has become a personal, product and corporate branding hub. Every brand that exists on Facebook has the same core features and benefits, such as the ability to create a page, share resources, add multimedia and much more. You have a unique opportunity to leverage this platform for career success or as a playground for you and your closest friends. The social graph is filled with CEOs, celebrities, entrepreneurs and people just like you who can be reached through Facebook’s messaging system without any boundaries or restrictions. Facebook is also a talent search engine and part of the college admission and corporate recruiting criteria.
5 Ways to Take Control of Your Personal Brand Today.

Dan Schawbel is the author of the bestselling book Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.

With a bad economy, more pressure at work and overwhelming competition, investing in yourself and your future is crucial. There are a lot of new trends and tricks that you can take advantage of now. Below are five easy and initial steps you can take to start building your brand today. These will help you control your online identity, protect your future, centralize your digital assets, safeguard your brand from threats and more. Tell us how you've taken control of your personal brand in the comments below. 1. Recently, Google launched Google Profiles, a feature that enables users to claim their own profiles which are displayed at the bottom of search results when their names are Googled.